My aunt drew her shoulders back, pretending that the seat belt chafed. Without looking over at either of us, she grumbled her unhappy response. “Yes. She’s distant kin. Don’t make more of it than needs to be said.”

“Wow,” Dave said.

“Wow,” I echoed. Out the back window I saw two policemen guiding my cousin, Malachi Dufresne, into a van with iron mesh bars on the windows. He paused and scanned the crowd, one foot poised midair.

One of the cops pushed him forward, and he disappeared into the vehicle.

Later that night I cornered Lulu in the kitchen. You corner Lulu and you’re taking your chances, but I was feeling brave after what I saw as my victory in the courtroom. I sidled up alongside her at the sink and broached the subject I knew she least wanted to see brought up. “So what is that place, what Aunt Eliza said?”

“Don’t call her that.”

“What was it you called her? Tatie? What’s that mean? It’s not like ‘Katie,’ is it? It’s not like a name or something?”

“Just call her Eliza. She never needs to hear more than that from you.”

I hopped up on the counter and picked at a foil bag of potato chips. “All right.” I stuffed a crispy potato shingle into my mouth and talked around my chewing, so I could pretend that Lulu had misheard something in case I needed an excuse to backtrack.

“So it’s Pine Breeze, huh—not the Pine Trees like I used to think. And it’s for real; I didn’t make it up. I really heard it someplace. Are you going to tell me what it is, or not?”

“No, I’m not going to tell you, not yet. And don’t ask again. I’ll bring it up when I think you’re old enough to hear about it.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but it wasn’t as harsh a reaction as I’d nearly expected.

I grunted, still gnawing on that salty chip. “Maybe I’ll ask again, and maybe I won’t.”

“Well,” she said, taking the bag away from me, “you’d better not.”

III

I missed two weeks of school during the trial, and when I returned I was something of a celebrity. Chattanooga isn’t a big city, and anyone’s business is everyone’s business, especially if that business makes the news. Lu mostly kept me clear of the television during those weeks, though I don’t think she did me any favors. Not surprisingly, the media had gotten wind that my case was related to an older, equally perplexing one. Soon everyone in town knew more about Leslie than I did.

Leslie. She was my mother.